State Bank of Travancore suspends man suspected to be rapist Bitti Mohanty

Kannur: Bitti Mohanty, convicted of raping a German national in 2006, has been suspended by the State Bank of Travancore, where he was working for the last two years.

Kerala police on Friday night arrested the man who called himself Raghav Rajan on charges of impersonation. The police was asked to investigate him by his employer, the State Bank of Travancore, after the bank received an anonymous tip-off. When police arrested him, Rajan confessed to actually being Bitti Mohanty. He, however, later reversed his statement.

However, a Rajasthan police officer who had travelled to Kerala identified him as the missing rapist.

Bitti was convicted in March 2006 for raping a 26-year-old German national in a hotel in Alwar, Rajasthan. At that time, his father BB Mohanty was the Director General, Home Guards and Fire Services in Odisha. On November 20, he was allowed to leave prison on parole on the plea that his mother in Odisha was unwell and wanted to meet him. He had been missing ever since.

Bitti had been living in Kerala for the last three and a half years, had a fake passport, a driver's licence and even a college degree certificate in the name of Raghav Rajan, police sources said. He had been working at the bank for two years now, after acquiring an MBA degree from Kannur.

The police say after he gave the cops the slip in 2006, Bitti fled to Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh. He was in Andhra Pradesh for three years, but constantly changed town.